JP6308815B2 - Image forming apparatus - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus, and more particularly to a configuration for preventing damage to an image forming apparatus when an image forming apparatus main body is mounted on a mounting apparatus.

  Some conventional image forming apparatuses are installed on a desk. Then, the image forming apparatus main body is placed on a pedestal which is a placing apparatus so that it can be placed on the floor, and is combined with other equipment such as a finisher to constitute an image forming system. Here, the pedestal includes a cassette for storing sheets and sheet feeding means for feeding the sheets stored in the cassette, so that the sheets are fed to an image forming apparatus main body having an image forming unit. There is what I did.

  In such an image forming apparatus in which the main body of the image forming apparatus is placed on the pedestal, when the main body of the image forming apparatus is placed so that the sheet can be reliably fed from the pedestal, the main body of the image forming apparatus is pedestal. Need to be positioned and mounted. In view of this, there has conventionally been provided a positioning means having a plurality of positioning pins protruding from the upper surface of the pedestal and a plurality of positioning holes formed in the bottom surface of the image forming apparatus main body (see Patent Document 1). When the image forming apparatus main body is mounted, the image forming apparatus main body is positioned and mounted on the pedestal by inserting a plurality of positioning pins provided on the pedestal into positioning holes formed in the image forming apparatus main body. Placed.

JP 2003-156900 A

  By the way, some conventional image forming apparatuses have a bottom plate removed from the frame of the image forming apparatus main body in recent years in order to reduce the weight of the image forming apparatus main body. In some cases, the image forming apparatus is used in a high-temperature and high-humidity environment. In this case, moisture or heat enters the storage unit. Due to the moisture and heat, the sheets stored in the sheet cassette are stuck together, or the sheets are curled, causing a sheet feeding failure or a transfer failure. For this reason, a heater is provided below the cassette storage unit, and the sheets in the sheet feeding cassette are heated by the heater to prevent sticking between sheets. In particular, when the bottom plate of the main body of the image forming apparatus is removed, moisture and heat easily enter the storage portion, and thus the necessity of a heater is increasing.

  By the way, when the image forming apparatus main body is placed on the pedestal, the image forming apparatus main body is lifted and placed on the pedestal. However, since the weight of the image forming apparatus main body is generally 40 to 50 kg, it is difficult to place the image forming apparatus main body. Power is required. For this reason, it is not easy to allow a plurality of positioning pins provided on the upper surface of the pedestal to enter the positioning holes formed on the bottom surface of the image forming apparatus main body in one mounting operation.

  If an image forming apparatus main body without a bottom plate is placed in a pedestal position, the positioning pin cannot enter the positioning hole, and the positioning pin directly hits the heater and damages the heater. There is a fear.

  Accordingly, the present invention has been made in view of such a current situation, and provides an image forming apparatus capable of preventing damage when the image forming apparatus main body is placed on a pedestal (placement apparatus). It is the purpose.

In the image forming apparatus, the image forming apparatus main body having a sheet storage unit for storing sheets, the mounting apparatus on which the image forming apparatus main body is mounted, and the upper surface of the mounting apparatus are protruded. Positioning means provided on the bottom surface of the plurality of pins and the image forming apparatus main body, having a plurality of mounting holes into which the pins enter, and positioning the image forming apparatus main body on the mounting apparatus; and the image forming apparatus main body A heater unit that is mounted on the bottom surface and that heats the sheet stored in the sheet storage unit, and is provided so as to cover only a part of the heater unit from below. And a protective member that contacts the pin and protects the heater portion when placed in a state shifted from the positioning position by the positioning means.
In the image forming apparatus, the image forming apparatus main body, a mounting apparatus on which the image forming apparatus main body is mounted, a plurality of pins protruding from the upper surface of the mounting apparatus, and the image forming Positioning means provided on the bottom surface of the apparatus main body, having a plurality of mounting holes into which the pins enter, positioning the image forming apparatus main body on the mounting apparatus, and a mounting member mounted on the bottom surface of the image forming apparatus main body And a state in which the image forming apparatus main body is displaced from the positioning position by the positioning means in the above-described mounting device, and is formed so as to cover only a part of the mounting member from below. And a protective member that contacts the pin and protects the mounting member when mounted.

  As in the present invention, the image forming apparatus main body is placed on the bottom surface of the image forming apparatus main body by providing a protective member that comes into contact with the pins when the image forming apparatus main body is placed in a state shifted from the positioning position. It is possible to prevent the image forming apparatus main body from being damaged when placed on the printer.

1 is a perspective view of an image forming apparatus main body of an image forming apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention. The perspective view of the pedestal in which the said image forming apparatus main body is mounted. FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a heater unit attached to the image forming apparatus main body. The figure which shows a state when a heater part is attached to the said image forming apparatus main body. FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a breakage prevention member attached to the image forming apparatus main body. The perspective view of the pedestal in which the image forming apparatus main body of the image forming apparatus which concerns on 2nd Embodiment of this invention is mounted. FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the image forming apparatus main body. The figure explaining the effect | action of the damage prevention member attached to the said image forming apparatus main body. The figure explaining the effect | action of the two breakage prevention members attached to the said image forming apparatus main body.

  Hereinafter, embodiments for carrying out the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an image forming apparatus main body of an image forming apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, 100 is an image forming apparatus main body (hereinafter referred to as an apparatus main body), and 110 is an apparatus main body. 100 frames. A cassette storage space 111 for storing a sheet feeding cassette, which is a sheet storage unit for storing sheets, not shown, is provided below the apparatus main body 100. And this apparatus main body 100 is mounted in the pedestal 200 which is a mounting apparatus shown in FIG.

  The pedestal 200 includes a main body 201, a sheet feeding cassette unit 202 that stores a sheet bundle, and a sheet feeding unit 203 that feeds sheets stored in the sheet feeding cassette unit 202 to the apparatus main body 100. Here, a first positioning pin 1 projects from the front side of the upper surface of the pedestal 200, and a second positioning pin 2 projects from the rear side. Further, as shown in FIG. 1, the first mounting hole 4 into which the first positioning pin 1 of the pedestal 200 is inserted and the second positioning pin 2 are inserted into the bottom surface of the frame 110 of the apparatus main body 100. 2 mounting holes 5 are formed.

  When the apparatus main body 100 is placed on the pedestal 200, the first positioning pin 1 is inserted into the elongated first mounting hole 4 and the second positioning pin 2 is inserted into the second mounting hole 5. The apparatus main body 100 is positioned and placed. That is, in the present embodiment, the first and second positioning pins 1 and 2 of the pedestal 200 and the first and second mounting holes 4 and 5 of the apparatus main body 100 are shown in FIG. Positioning means 8 for positioning the apparatus main body 100 on the pedestal 200 is configured.

  In the present embodiment, the bottom plate is removed from the frame body 110 in order to reduce the weight of the apparatus main body 100, and thereby the lower portion of the cassette storage space 111 for storing the paper feed cassette is opened. When the lower part is opened in this way, in a hot and humid environment, the sheets stored in the sheet feeding cassette are stuck to each other or the sheets are curled due to moisture and heat, and there is a problem of sheet feeding failure or transfer failure. Occur.

  For this reason, the heater part 300 which is an example of the attachment member shown in FIG. 3 is attached to the bottom face of the frame 110 so as to prevent sticking between sheets by heating the sheets in the sheet feeding cassette. The heater unit 300 includes a heater 301 of about 25 W wound with a heating wire, a support metal plate 302 that supports the heater 301, and a connector 303. And when attaching the heater part 300 to the frame 110, after inserting the bending part 304 provided in the back | inner side of the support metal plate 302 in the frame 110, the connector 303 is not shown in the connector provided in the apparatus main body 100. Plug in. Thereby, it is possible to energize the heater 301. Thereafter, as shown in FIG. 4, the front side of the heater unit 300 is fixed to the frame 110 with screws 310.

  By the way, in this Embodiment, the damage prevention member 9 which is a protection member which protects the heater 301 covers a part of heater 301 from the bottom as shown to (a) of FIG. It is attached as follows. In the present embodiment, the breakage prevention member 9 is disposed in the vicinity of the first mounting hole 4.

  Here, as described above, when the apparatus main body 100 is placed on the pedestal 200, the apparatus main body 100 inserts the positioning pins 1 and 2 of the pedestal 200 into the mounting holes 4 and 5 provided in the frame 110 of the apparatus main body 100. Inserted and positioned. However, since the weight of the apparatus main body 100 is as heavy as 40 to 50 kg, when mounting on the pedestal 200 with a small number of people, not only a large force is required, but also the positioning pins 1 and 2 of the pedestal 200 are securely attached. It is difficult to insert them into the mounting holes 4 and 5.

  For this reason, when the apparatus main body 100 is mounted on the pedestal 200, the apparatus main body 100 may be mounted on the pedestal 200 in a state shifted from the positioning position by the positioning means 8 described above. At this time, if the positioning pins 1 and 2 and the mounting holes 4 and 5 are displaced by 20 to 30 mm, for example, the first positioning pin 1 of the pedestal 200 may come into contact with the heater unit 300 and the heater unit 300 may be damaged.

  However, in the present embodiment, the damage preventing member 9 is attached so as to cover a part of the heater 301 from below, so that when the positioning pins 1 and 2 and the attachment holes 4 and 5 are displaced, FIG. (B), the first positioning pin 1 comes into contact with the breakage preventing member 9. Thereby, it is possible to prevent the heater unit 300 from being damaged. In the present embodiment, the breakage prevention member 9 is a triangular sheet metal having a side of 70 mm, and is formed with a plate thickness of 1 mm so that the apparatus main body 100 having a weight of 40 to 50 kg is not deformed or broken. .

  When the first positioning pin 1 comes into contact with the breakage prevention member 9, the first positioning pin 1 does not enter the first mounting hole 4, so that the user is in a state where the apparatus main body 100 is shifted from the positioning position to the pedestal 200. You will notice that it is placed in. As a result, the placement position is adjusted by the user, the first positioning pin 1 is inserted into the first mounting hole 4, and the apparatus main body 100 is placed in a state of being positioned in the pedestal 200.

  As described above, in the present embodiment, when the apparatus main body 100 is placed on the bottom surface of the apparatus main body 100 (the frame 110 thereof) in a state of being displaced from the positioning position, the positioning pins 1 and 2 are in contact with each other. A breakage prevention member 9 is provided. Thereby, damage of the apparatus main body 100 at the time of mounting the apparatus main body 100 on the pedestal 200 can be prevented. In addition, by providing the damage preventing member 9 and preventing the apparatus main body 100 from being damaged in this way, workability when placing the apparatus main body 100 can be improved. The breakage preventing member 9 is set to a minimum size, and thus does not hinder the weight reduction of the apparatus main body 100.

  Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described. FIG. 6 is a perspective view of a pedestal of the image forming apparatus according to the present embodiment. In FIG. 6, the same reference numerals as those in FIG. 2 described above indicate the same or corresponding parts. As shown in FIG. 6, the first positioning pin 1, the second positioning pin 2, and the third positioning pin 3 are provided at three of the four corners of the upper surface of the pedestal 200. Here, of the positioning pins 1, 2, 3, the height of the first positioning pin 1 on the front side is lower than the other two pins 2, 3 on the back side. Specifically, the height of the first positioning pin 1 on the near side is 20 mm, and the second and third positioning pins 2 and 3 on the far side are 40 mm.

  Further, as shown in FIG. 7, the first mounting hole 4 into which the first positioning pin 1 on the front side of the pedestal 200 is inserted and the second positioning pin 2 on the back side are inserted into the frame 110 of the apparatus main body 100. The second mounting hole 5 and the third mounting hole 6 through which the third positioning pin 3 is inserted are formed. That is, in this embodiment, the pedestal 200 shown in FIG. 8A to be described later is formed by the three positioning pins 1, 2, 3 of the pedestal 200 and the three mounting holes 4, 5, 6 of the apparatus main body 100. Positioning means 8 for positioning the apparatus main body 100 is configured.

  Further, a breakage prevention member 9 is attached in the vicinity of the third attachment hole 6 of the frame 110 of the apparatus main body 100. In FIG. 7, reference numeral 7 denotes a frame that is attached to the lower end of the frame body 110 and forms a part of the bottom surface of the apparatus main body 100.

  When the apparatus main body 100 is placed on the pedestal 200 having the positioning pins 1, 2 and 3 having different heights, the apparatus main body 100 is placed on the pedestal 200 in a state of being displaced from the positioning position by the positioning means 8. May be. In this case, as shown in FIGS. 8A and 8B, the positioning pins 1, 2, 3 and the mounting holes 4, 5, 6 are placed in a shifted state.

  Here, when it shifts in the state as shown in FIG. 8A, the load is supported by the two second and third positioning pins 2 and 3 on the back side and the frame 7 of the frame 110. Since the heater unit 300 is not loaded, the heater unit 300 is not damaged. In the case of deviation in the state as shown in FIG. 8B, the third positioning pin 3 comes into contact with the breakage preventing member 9. In this case, a load is applied to the frame 7 of the frame 110 to which the breakage preventing member 9 is attached, and the heater unit 300 is not damaged.

  As described above, in the present embodiment, when the apparatus main body 100 is placed on the pedestal 200 in a state shifted from the positioning position by the positioning means 8 in the vicinity of the third mounting hole 6 on the bottom surface of the frame 110. In addition, a breakage prevention member 9 that comes into contact with the third positioning pin 3 is provided. Thereby, damage of the apparatus main body 100 at the time of mounting the apparatus main body 100 on the pedestal 200 can be prevented. Further, since the breakage preventing member 9 is set to a minimum size, the weight reduction of the apparatus main body 100 is not hindered.

  In the present embodiment, the case where the breakage prevention member 9 is attached to the frame 7 of the frame body 110 has been described. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the breakage prevention member 9 is attached to the frame body 110. One or a plurality of frames 7 may be provided. For example, as shown in FIG. 9, the damage prevention members 9 and 10 may be attached to the frame 7 at two locations facing each other. Thus, by mounting the damage prevention members 9 and 10 facing each other, when the apparatus main body 100 is placed on the pedestal 200, for example, even when the front and rear, left and right are shifted 20 ° clockwise and counterclockwise by 20 ° Damage to the portion 300 can be prevented.

  The breakage preventing members 9 and 10 are attached in the vicinity of the first attachment hole 4 and the third attachment hole 6, for example, as shown in FIG. Further, the structure has a length L2 shorter than the interval L1 between the first mounting hole 4, the second mounting hole 5, and the third mounting hole 6. The positioning pins 1, 2 and 3 are crimped to a sheet metal and fixed to the pedestal 200 so as to be replaceable, so that the pins can be replaced even when the positioning pins 1, 2 and 3 are deformed. .

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... 1st positioning pin, 2 ... 2nd positioning pin, 3 ... 3rd positioning pin, 4 ... 1st mounting hole, 5 ... 2nd mounting hole, 6 ... 3rd mounting hole, 7 ... Frame, 8 ... Positioning means 9, 10 ... Damage prevention member, 100 ... Image forming apparatus main body, 110 ... Frame body, 200 ... Pedestal, 300 ... Heater part

Claims (8)

An image forming apparatus main body having a sheet storage section for storing sheets ;
A mounting device on which the image forming apparatus main body is mounted;
A plurality of pins projecting from the upper surface of the mounting apparatus and a plurality of mounting holes provided in the bottom surface of the image forming apparatus main body, and the pins are inserted into the mounting apparatus, and positioning the image forming apparatus main body on the mounting apparatus Positioning means for
A heater unit mounted on a bottom surface of the image forming apparatus main body and heating a sheet stored in the sheet storage unit ;
It is provided so as to cover only a part of the heater portion from below, and when the image forming apparatus main body is placed on the placement device in a state shifted from the positioning position by the positioning means, it contacts the pin. An image forming apparatus comprising: a protective member that protects the heater portion .   The placement apparatus includes: another sheet storage unit that stores a sheet; and a feeding unit that feeds a sheet stored in the other sheet storage unit toward the image forming apparatus main body. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that placing the protective member in the vicinity of the mounting hole. The image forming apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the protective member is provided one or more of the bottom surface of the image forming apparatus main body. The protective member, an image forming apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that it is formed of sheet metal triangular shape. The image forming apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that said pin is replaceable. The heater unit is detachably supported by the image forming apparatus main body, a heater that is supported by the support unit and capable of generating heat, is supported by the support unit, and is connected to the heater. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: a connector unit that supplies electric power supplied from the image forming apparatus.   An image forming apparatus main body;
  A mounting device on which the image forming apparatus main body is mounted;
  A plurality of pins projecting from the upper surface of the mounting apparatus and a plurality of mounting holes provided in the bottom surface of the image forming apparatus main body, and the pins are inserted into the mounting apparatus, and positioning the image forming apparatus main body on the mounting apparatus Positioning means for
  A mounting member mounted on a bottom surface of the image forming apparatus main body;
  It is formed of a triangular sheet metal and is provided so as to cover only a part of the mounting member from below, and the image forming apparatus main body is mounted on the mounting apparatus in a state shifted from the positioning position by the positioning means. An image forming apparatus, comprising: a protection member that contacts the pin and protects the mounting member when placed.

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